In a quiet northeast Salem neighborhood, the life of 15-year-old Matthew J. New, a White male, came to a tragic and violent end on the morning of November 6, 2023. His body was discovered by a woman out for a walk around 7:30 a.m., slumped inside a stolen truck on Northeast Evergreen Avenue. When police and fire crews arrived, they found the teen had sustained a fatal gunshot wound.
The severity of his injuries caused significant swelling to his face, making immediate identification difficult for investigators. It took a day and a half for police to confirm his identity, a confirmation that was ultimately made possible by a birthmark his mother, Jennifer Newman, described to them.
The devastating news reached Matthew’s mother not from officials, but from one of her son's classmates who knocked on her door on November 7th. She had been unaware of the incident, and the sudden revelation plunged her into what she described as a nightmare. In the hours leading up to his death, Matthew had been out on a joyride with two friends in the stolen vehicle. Accounts pieced together from friends suggest that during the ride, Matthew yelled insults at two individuals they passed on the street. When they circled back and passed the same people again, shots were fired into the truck.
Matthew was struck in the head and collapsed. The two friends who were with him fled the scene, leaving him behind in the vehicle where he would be found the next morning. The investigation into the homicide led police to a suspect two months later. Gage J. Clark Adkins, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was arrested just days after his 18th birthday. He was taken into custody and charged as an adult.
A Marion County grand jury indicted Clark Adkins on charges of second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and three counts of unlawful use of a weapon. The suspect had a prior history with the criminal justice system, having previously spent time in a youth correctional facility for illegally possessing firearms and had been released on parole only eleven weeks before the fatal shooting. Matthew, a student at North Salem High School, had been working to improve his grades and was planning to join the school's wrestling team, with sign-ups scheduled for the day after he died.
